From Hot and Breezy to Not so Easy
Spending a month abroad comes with its typical trials and tribulations. You’re away from home, your family, your friends, and your everyday routine. Then there’s studying abroad in Iceland on the Field Study of Volcanic and Glacial Processes dialogue. Now, I was also away from a bed, a room, and guaranteed hot water. This dialogue entails a month of camping throughout the island Iceland and I had never been camping before, so the culture shock was unreal.
First off, Iceland doesn’t really get dark. The sun dips, hovers across the sky and then comes back up again. It made it really difficult to gage time without the light changing throughout the day. So much so that one of my classmates woke up at 2:30 in the morning, thought it was 6:00, and then proceeded to shower and get ready for the day. I ended up using a sock as a sleeping mask the first few nights to feign darkness. It is an adjustment to not sleep in the dark and I do find myself missing the stars. On the plus side, if I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, I’m not stumbling through the darkness.
The next big change was the fact that I was living out of a tent. I have enough room for my sleeping bag and my duffle and that’s about it. Sleeping the first night was rough. Not only was I jet lagged, I was also cold. Summer in Iceland is very different from the 80 degree weather in Boston. Our first campsite in Reykjavik had highs in the 50s while our second spot in the interior dipped into the 30s and 40s. I couldn’t fall asleep for hours because of the light, the nerves, and because I couldn’t stop shivering. (Tip: You can never have enough layers!). My mom received a multitude of texts detailing my woes and the fact that I was in over my head. There’s only so much a mother can do in another country, so she just told me to stick it out and that things would get better.
As mothers tend to be, she was right. The upside of culture shock is that everyone was going through it. We’d all left behind our warm beds and warmer weather for life in a tent. Everyone had trouble sleeping the first night, but it gave us something to laugh about over breakfast and an opportunity to give each other advice. The second night, I put on few extra layers and slept like a baby.
I’m still getting used to living in Iceland. There’s limited wifi, communal showers, and weather changes on the drop of a dime. I miss my family, my bed, and sunsets before 11 PM. I also don’t think I’ll ever get used to worrying if my home has blown away while I’m hiking. Yet, as each day passes I feel more comfortable in my little tent and more at home with my classmates. After not thinking I would last more than a day, I’ve survived over a week, which is a pretty cool feeling.
